


Break The Circle, Then Your Spirit

by astrivikia



Series: You Can't Wake Up, This is Not A Dream [2]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Diverges pre-Cassandra's revenge, Gen, Guilt, Not Canon Compliant, Possession, Zhan Tiri possesses Varian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22733764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrivikia/pseuds/astrivikia
Summary: Zhan Tiri will control the situation, one way or another.
Relationships: Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider (Disney), Cassandra & Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Zhan Tiri & Varian
Series: You Can't Wake Up, This is Not A Dream [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634686
Comments: 33
Kudos: 219





	1. Chapter 1

Whatever scene Rapunzel had been expecting to find when they burst into the room, this was _not_ it.

Everything was awash in a toxic green light which spilled out from a circle in the center of the room.

Cass spun in alarm to face them, a stricken expression on her face. “Raps, I know this looks bad, but please let me explain.”

“Oh this should be good,” a different voice cut in, vicious delight in their tone.

“Varian?” The laugh that answered her rang dissonantly off the stone walls.

“Not quite, Sundrop.”

She tried to walk closer to the circle, stiffening in surprise when Cass grabbed her arm. “Stop, you don’t understand.”

As her eyes adjusted to the strange light, she could finally make out the glowing green eyes staring back from her friend’s face. A horrified gasp escaped her as she whirled back to face Cassandra, hissing out a soft, “Cass, what have you done?”

“Oh my god,” Eugene’s voice cut in as he stepped up behind Rapunzel. “Cass, did you seriously let a child get possessed?”

“Stay back!” Rocks rose between them and Varian. “We don’t know what Zhan Tiri will do if she gets out of that circle.”

“Zhan Tiri?” Rapunzel breathed, glancing back toward Varian.

The… being in the circle ruefully ran a hand over the top of their- Varian’s- head, muttering something in a strange language.

“ _Zhan Tiri?_ As in the powerful entity from legend Zhan Tiri? Oh great! Well, this just got a lot more complicated.”

“Yes, as in _that_ _Zhan Tiri,_ ” Cass snapped back at Eugene. “How many other Zhan TIri’s have you heard of Fitzherbert?”

He folded his arms. “Ya, didn’t miss this attitude.”

“Guys!” Rapunzel snapped. “Can you bicker later? We have bigger problems right now!”

“Right, like how do we send her back?”

“That wasn’t in the instructions.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, instructions?”

"Ya, the ones boy genius translated."

Eugene threw his hand up in exasperation. "So you can't even read whatever you just did? Off to a great start here."

"I will impale you. Don't test my patience."

"It's like you were never gone."

Cass scowled at him.

The demon inside Varian laughed, leaning against the barrier, which shimmered under the touch. "Look at you all, bickering like the petty little creatures you are. Pathetic."

Eugene growled softly under his breath.

They all jumped as a gloved hand slammed against the barrier, claws managing to make an unholy screech despite it being a largely intangible surface.

Magenta sparks scattered around them. "You are _not_ sending me back." Their mask shifted into a grin. "And you _will_ be letting me out of here.”

Rapunzel glared back. "Ya, I don't think so. Give me my friend back."

"I don't think so sundrop. If you don't let me out of here, I will make sure your little friend cannot survive, should I be ejected. You wouldn't want that would you?" They raised a clawed hand, delicately tracing along their jawline.

"You wouldn't," Rapunzel said, even as her voice shook from anxiety.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Nothing good could come of the sadistic joy on their face. “Did you forget? I’m a demon, dear.”

Tracks of green energy began to branch out over Varian's skin, glowing so painfully bright that she could track their progression even through Varian's clothes.

A choked sound escaped him as he doubled over against the barrier, that horrid mask retreating to reveal how his lips curled in pain.

He squeezed his eyes shut, breath visibly coming short and fast as he struggled to hold himself together. Rapunzel’s stomach dropped as a pained whimper escaped him.

She felt as close to tears as Varian looked. For a long moment he just stood there, breathing harshly, supported by the magical barrier alone. And then, a small, desperate gasp of, “St-stop, please…” escaped him.

"Not until your little friends give me what I want." It was horrifying to watch as Zhan Tiri replied from his own lips, an action all the more twisted by the realization that it was for their benefit.

She clenched her fists at her side. “That’s enough!”

“Nnnghh, ‘punzel, don’t-“

“Raps, we don’t know what she’ll do. You can’t-” Cass said, reaching for her wrist again.

She twisted out of reach, weaving through the black rocks in her path.

“No, what I _can’t_ do is stand here and watch this and _do nothing.”_ She purposefully placed her foot on the spell circle, swiping away part of the intricate markings.

Her gaze locked with Varian for one brief instant, and then a burst of green magic flared out from the broken circle, flinging them all back.

Rapunzel felt her side collide painfully with the black rocks behind her, sending her toppling to her knees. The aftershocks of magic left her ears ringing, and the room fell dark in its wake.

The blur of a person, faintly alight with that magical energy, darted past her, twisting and weaving through the rocks.

“Varian!” She cried, voice strained. It was too late. They were out the door before the rest of them had a chance to recover.

* * *

Keeping control took an enormous amount of energy, and Varian channeled it into one, simple goal. Run. Get as far from Rapunzel and Cassandra as he could. Because he wouldn’t let her have them; either of them. Or this- this decision- it would have been for nothing.

Exhaustion dragged at the edges of his senses, the demon trying to pull her way back to the forefront of consciousness. Sometimes his vision would cloud green, senses growing more distant. He grit his teeth and blinked his vision back into focus.

Varian stumbled, catching himself on a tree trunk. His breath came in harshly, eyes staring in numb horror at the gashes the claws extending from his gloves left behind.

He couldn’t- He-

His legs gave out from under him, and he slumped back against the tree trunk, grimacing against the headache that threatened to split his skull apart. Pressing his hands over his ears did nothing to shut out the whispering voice filling his mind. But then, it wouldn’t would it?

“You can’t resist me forever, child.” The voice was sing-song, a sickly sweet edge to it. “You, unlike me, are human. You need to rest, to recover. And once you give into that need, I can regain control.”

Varian’s skin crawled.

“Oh, don’t worry pet, I’ll build you a nice illusion this time. You won’t even know what’s happening. It’ll be like falling asleep. Except you won’t have to wake up.”

“Shut up,” he hissed, his insides twisting with horror. “There… there has to be a way to contain you. You’re not- you don’t belong in this realm.”

“I would stop there. You don’t want to make this more difficult for yourself. After all, you don’t have to suffer. Not if you’re good.”

It would be so easy to give in. To just sink into some false dream. “And what about my friends? My home? You expect me to believe you’ll leave them alone? I don’t think so.”

“Fine.” The voice rang with annoyance. “We’ll do this the hard way.” Pain spiked blindingly through his head, spots dancing across his vision. He whimpered, trying to think, or do anything.

All he managed to do was slip into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will you look at that, this is becoming a series of connected one-shots. The common theme, the boy suffers. Thank you again to RosieBrie for beta reading this for me! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, showing up 2 months since the last update: WHAT IS UP MY DUDES, we all inside ya? Wild. Anyway, so this part follows pretty directly off the last chapter so I added it to the same work. Have fun with the feels!

A low groan escaped Cass as she pulled herself up on one of the black rocks, grimacing into the lowlight. "Oh, great!" She whirled around, gaze angrily cutting to the outline of Rapunzel. "Nice going your highness. Just what do you think you achieved with that? I mean besides releasing a demon onto Corona."

A match struck, revealing Eugene lighting one of the candles at the worktable. "I seem to recall you were the one who-"

"Can it Fitzherbert."

"I couldn't just watch my friend get tortured like that Cass." Pleading green eyes sought out her own.

A bitter laugh escaped Cassandra. "Oh well bravo, now he gets to be tortured where we can't see! And worse, we have no idea what Zhan Tiri, what either of them, will do now! Or where they'll go!"

"I-"

Cass turned away from Rapunzel before she could finish, gaze already on the door Varian had fled through. "We need to find them."

"And do what? Cass, you said yourself that Varian was the one who translated the summoning ritual. We don't know how to send her back, and we certainly don't have a plan."

"I don't need a plan, I need to fix this!" She could feel tears burning her eyes. "Don't you get it? I-" She gritted her teeth, before sending black rocks through the ritual circle til it was no longer legible. "I did this to him."

Her jaw tensed, and she tried to sort through the mess of emotions she couldn't bring herself to verbalize. _'I didn't want him to get hurt. I didn't want to hurt anyone..... Did I? I just-'_ The longer she thought about it, the harder it was to truly articulate what she wanted.

Recognition, to feel like she was worth something. But it was getting harder to grasp how complete power over the rocks gave her that with the little ghost girl no longer whispering in her ear. Her friends’ voices were now loud and present, the uncertainty and hollowness that had been buried by so much anger and resentment weighing heavily in her chest.

She felt a tear streak down her cheek and growled in distress as her vision blurred. No, she couldn't, she wouldn't be weak like this.

Footsteps approached her, a hand settling on her shoulder. Too large to belong to Raps.

"Hey, Cassandra." She should shove him away. She shouldn't- "Look, I'm not going to pretend I know why you did what you did. But you clearly want to fix this." He squeezed her shoulder gently. "We all do. So... whatever all this is, can we agree to put it aside as we solve this? Cause I don't know about you, but I think it'll do us all a world of good."

Cass breathed slow and measured, staring blankly across the room for a moment. And then she raised her hand, settling it over Eugene's before guiding it off her. She kept the grip for a moment, giving a subtle squeeze of acknowledgement as she turned to face him.

Her gaze was still lowered, eyes on their linked hands, as she tried to fight back anymore tears. A tremor ran subtly through her voice as she replied, and god, how she hated that. "You know I hate to agree with you, but... Ya, okay...."

She released his hand, striding over to Varian's worktable and attempting to surreptitiously wipe at her eyes.

"We'll need Varian's notes. Maybe they can give us some clues on what to do. I'd ask Blue, but I don't think she'll be much help."

"Who's Blue?" Rapunzel asked.

"A long story," Cass answered shortly, before cutting the topic short. "I still think we should try and track him, even if a direct confrontation isn't smart. I'd send owl but...." She grimaced, thinking about how long it had been since she'd last seen her companion.

"We'll think of something." Rapunzel's voice rang with determination.

Cass turned back, shoving the scrolls into Varian's bag and trying not to think too hard about that. "We'd better," she said, meeting those familiar green eyes. 


End file.
